Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-26
STRIKES AND BOTCOTTS.
Some Pointed Facts to Their Results,
and Who get Hurt

and Who get Hurt
The Prairie Farmer in It's issue of Febru-
airy 18th has the following;
The general object of such associations
as the Knights of Labor is a good one
but the management soon fails under the
! arbitrary direction of certain men having
the gift of gsb-men not really working
men, but. labor demagogues, who climb
into offices and good salaries by poisoning
the minds OF industrial society-1nen who
pander to class passions and sentiments OF
wage-earners, and incte them to labor con-
tests, so as to show their own authority,
and make show of earning the salaries
they themselves receive Their salaries
never stop. no matter how long their dupes
may be out of employment, and income
needed to support themselves and families.
These Martin Irons" and Buffers" and
"Quinns" on some pretext, real or pre-
tended, order their dupes to sacrifice their
daily bread, for weeks and months, and
then lose their geo 1 positions permanently.
Fake the strike just closed in New
York. A few men employed by a steam
ship company differed with their employ
ers about y cents per ton in handling
coal, and struck, as they had right to do,
if they wished. Other men were put in
their places, as there were thousands glad
to do the work at the prices paid There
upon these strutting satraps of officers for
bade everybody from using the coal or
having anything to do with The offending
company, and because they were not In
stantly obeyed, so 600 men were ordered to
quit work-men who had not grievance
OF their own in the world and their hon
estly- earned wages were assessed to support
others who were idle. This scandalous
III.
dollars they would have earned while idle,
besides disarranging the business of n
whole city, discommoding many millions
of people and causing large advance in
the cost of coal, mainly to people least able
topay it, as those who could best pay the
advance were already supplied with their
stocks laid in for the winter On the pre-
tense that there had been a slight yielding
to their authority by single company
.hese Quinns and other pestiferous distur-
bers ordered the strike off" but thousands
of their dunes find their places filled. and
they are all ahoat The salaries of the
walking delegates" and those responsible
for the strike go right on, though doing no
labor with their own hands.
Take all the strikes that have occurred in
twenty years past, and in the aggregate
for every one single dollar gained by the
strikers, in increase of wages, or otherwise,
two hundred dollars have been lost bv the
men engaged in them. And this will al
ways be the case in The very nature of
things. Goods. property. stocks, bonds,
labor, skilled or unskilled, will follow the
Interchangeable aw that supply and demand
regulate prices. in the long run. Every
man has perfect right to get his own
price upon his products, his skill, his time.
his labor but he has no right to do this
for any other man, nor has he right or
power to compel others to take his prod
ucts or his labor at his own price. Sup
pose, tor illustration, that the farmers of
this country should resolve that their grain.
which represents their labor, is tco low,
and that they would not sell hushel. ex
cept at certain figures, and that they would
boycott everybody who sold lower than
their set prices, and boycott all who
bought of anybody who did sell lower.
Would they succeed, when the rest of the
world has wheat to sell at what can be got
for it? No more can their helpers, who
have labor TO sell, control lis price. Its
price is the highest rate it will bring. The
same rule runs through all departments of
business. We work upon the Prairie Fur
mer more hours per Gay and do harder
service, than Irons, or Batler. or Quinn.
were ever accused of laboring But ii any
body else makes as good or better paper,
and offers it at lower price, can we ex-
pect or command that subscribers shall
continue TO take our paper at our price? 1t
would be nonsense; and equally nonsensi-
cal is it for those who have skill or goods,
or labor to sell, TO expect TO control the
market, and compel others to pay their
Drice